A socio-political and cultural blog from the Republic of Ireland. The truth about the Celtic Tiger, it's demise and other related matters. Fír-eolas ar an Tíogar Cheiltigh, a thurnamh agus nithe gaolmhara eile.

In an extraordinary development today the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino,

released details of a letter he had received from the British Foreign Office in Londonand delivered through a British embassy official in Quito, the capital of the
South American country.The letter said: "You need to be aware that there is a legal base in
the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to
take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the
embassy."

It added: "We need to reiterate that we consider the continued use of
the diplomatic premises in this way incompatible with the Vienna convention and
unsustainable and we have made clear the serious implications that this has for
our diplomatic relations."

Last night, appeals were widely tweeted for Assange supporters to occupy the
embassy to prevent British police from arresting Assange, and while there was a
police presence outside the embassy, Scotland Yard insisted that officers were
simply there to "police the embassy like any other embassy".

The dramatic development came two months after Assange suddenly walked into
the Embassy in a bid to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he faces
alleged trumped

up charges of sexual assault as a cover to force him to return to Sweden and be liable

to be extradited to the USA with the connivance of the right-wing, pro-NATO government

in Sweden.

Senor Patiño
said he was "deeply shocked" by the diplomatic letter. Speaking to
reporters later, he said: "The government of Ecuador is considering a
request for asylum and has carried out diplomatic talks with the governments of
the United Kingdom and Sweden. However, today we received from the United
Kingdom a written threat that they could attack our embassy in London if
Ecuador does not give up Julian Assange.

"Ecuador,
as a state that respects rights and justice and is a democratic and peaceful
nation state, rejects in the strongest possible terms the explicit threat of
the British official communication. "This
is unbecoming of a democratic, civilised and law-abiding state. If this conduct
persists, Ecuador will take appropriate responses in accordance with
international law".

"If
the measures announced in the British official communication materialise they
will be interpreted by Ecuador as a hostile and intolerable act and also as an
attack on our sovereignty, which would require us to respond with greater
diplomatic force. "Such
actions would be a blatant disregard of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic
relations and of the rules of international law of the past four centuries. "It
would be a dangerous precedent because it would open the door to the violation
of embassies as a declared sovereign space." Under international law,
diplomatic posts are considered the territory of the foreign nation.

Professor Julio Echeverria of
Quito's Flasco University said Britain "has a long-established tradition
in Europe of respecting diplomatic missions", which under international
law are considered sovereign territory.

Assange denies the
allegations against him, but, fears he will be sent to the United States if he
goes to Sweden. An offer to the Swedish authorities by Ecuador for
investigators to interview Assange inside the London embassy was rejected. Assange enraged Washington in 2010 when WikiLeaks published secret US
diplomatic cables, has been taking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy since 19
June. If Ecuador does give Assange
asylum, it is difficult to see how the WikiLeaks boss could physically leave
the closely watched Embassy and head to an airport without being arrested by
British police.

The Ecuadorian Government will announce it's decision on political asylum for Mr Assange later today.

This latest development shows that the arrogance and hypocrisy of the aggressive NATOAlliance knows no bounds and considers, apparently, that International Law applies only to others and not to them. Threatening a sovereign country with invasion of it's Embassy is a scandalous affront to peaceful relations between nations and shows the colonial mentality

still survives in the British Foreign Office. Nevertheless, such an action would have severe consequences for British interests in Latin America as the majority of the countries on the Continent would show immediate solidarity with Ecuador. Already embroiled in a continuing conflict with Argentina over the disputed Malvinas Islands in the South Atlantic, such an aggressive move by Britain could have serious consequences for it's colonial outpost there.